Waste Heat Recovery. This project is a joint effort with Chalmers, KTH and Lund University and focuses on further increasing the fuel efficiency of combustion engines by utilizing the waste heat expelled from the exhaust system and if possible other losses. Chalmers is focusing on a Rankine cycle attached to the exhaust system and KTH is working with turbo compounding. The task of the student in Lund is twofold. The first task is to provide the students in Gteborg and Stockholm with input data on available exhaust energy for conventional engine operation as well as high fuel efficiency PPC combustion.
The second task is to evaluate the HAM concept. HAM stands for Humid Air Motor and is a concept patented by Lund researchers in the 1990:s and since then installed in a number of ship engines. With HAM, water is transformed to steam between the turbo compressor and engine using coolant energy. The humid air is then fed to the engine where the added water vapor can reduce NOx emissions by 70-80%. Finally the added mass flow through the engines can be used to extract more energy from the turbo expander.
With the same concept for gas turbines, EvGT, power can be doubled and fuel efficiency increased 50-70%. Investigating how much improvement can be achieved with the concept using combustion engines is the task for the PH.D student.
The project is funded by the Swedish Energy Administration and will have a reference group with industry members. For the student we will apply the same publication and travel rules as is in effect at the division now. These mean that all students get one "free" trip to a major international conference without presenting a paper and after that goes to meetings where the student makes an oral presentation of a paper written by her/him. T
he normal production for a student is 6-8 papers/presentations as first author within the framework of Ph.D. Project. All students are also expected to take part in other activities closely related to their own and by that be co-authors of additional papers.
The international conferences are located in USA, Asia (Japan mostly) and Europe. Within our wide international network we also send students for 1-6 month periods to companies or universities around the world. Examples during the last year are Toyota (JP), Caterpillar (USA), US Berkeley (USA), Stanford (USA).
This student exchange program is funded by the Vinnova VinnPro framework. Student within KCFP or associated projects will also give presentations for the industry partners twice per year in Lund and also at the industry locations. This means that a good personal network can be built during the Ph.D. Project and thus employment after graduation is highly probable. So far, everybody with a Ph.D. from the division has been offered a position in industry after graduation.
PhD Student in Combustion Engines
